Holocausto: Diário de Guerra (2019)

Holocausto's history dates all the way back to the mid 1980's, rising out of Brazil around the same time as the much better known Sarcófago and Sepultura.  And honestly, the music definitely shows.  While the aforementioned bands have adapted and evolved over time, Holocausto's sound now still sounds like it has not changed at all.

This is the band's first album since 2005, which is not the band's only hiatus, as that was their first album since 1993.  The band's sound on this release is rooted in the sound of Sodom demos (and the album cover proves the obvious Sodom influence) and the early extreme metal sound from South America, like the bands mentioned above.  The songs are mostly simplistic, based around one or two riffs per song and only really diversifying their sound through the use of samples of warfare that break through at times.  There are exceptions of course.  The title track is the best song on the album as it breaks into a groove-laden thrash break that will have heads banging.  But for the most part, this is extremely raw and ferocious, yet simple tracks.

This is probably not for everyone.  There is nothing particularly pretty here and it is just pure raw aggression.  It is also not particularly original.  Those who do not care for the early roots of South American extreme metal will probably not care for it.  This is nothing new, but it's still a lot of fun.

Goatpenis: Inhumanization (2004)

Some time ago I reviewed a live album by Goatpenis, and I will decline to make fun of their name this time around.  I have always felt that live albums were not really the best introductions to bands, because there is often a fairly significant difference between how a band sounds live and how they sound in a recording studio.  In this case, there were a couple of issues that I had with the production in particular.  As it turns out, that live album was pretty damn close to how Goatpenis sounds in a recording studio.  Weird.

This is the Brazilian band's first full-length album and it is every bit as raw and violent as I would have expected based on the live recording.  The album kicks off with a message dealing with the first experiment with a hydrogen bomb.  From there we are off and running.  The songs are full of unbridled aggression with rampaging riffs and pounding drums.  Everything is furious and savage, with no time for such trivial things as melody and subtlety. 

Oddly, some of the issues that I had that I thought were just production issues on the live release are present here as well.  For one, the bass is really buried in the mix.  There is very little bottom end at all.  Secondly, the vocals still have kind of a weird muffled echo sound to them.  They take a little getting used to.  The final issue with the release is one that was not present on the live action, and that is the over-reliance on samples prior to the songs.  Each song starts off with a sample from what sounds mostly like war movies.  Each of these samples lasts far longer than one would expect and it kind of kills any momentum the band is building.  It makes it kind of difficult to really get into the album.

I was surprised at just how much this release sounds like the live recording.  I am still trying to decide how I really feel about this band.  I like the albums I have heard from them, but I still find myself somewhat disappointed. 

Panic: Rotten Church (1987)

When I was first listening to this band, the thought occurred to me that this band sounded a lot like groups that were straddling the line between thrash metal and the fledgling death metal sound.  In particular I thought they sounded a lot like a combination between Possessed and Morbid Visions-era Sepultura.  I kind of liked their retro sound.  Then, upon exploring more information about the album, I determined that it actually came out in 1987 and this band would have been active at the same time as that shift in sound.  Well, there you go.

This is a short, sharp album that unfortunately went under the radar when it was released and is getting a reissue now when it might be better received.  The songs are mostly fast-paced, with a ton of riffs.  The thing I like most is the impressively meaty production.  Unlike other South American albums from the time period (looking at you Cogumelo Records), there is a lot of bottom end here and it is otherwise crisp and clear.  And the best thing about this is how well the bass can be heard, because it is doing some damn interesting things, particularly on "Empire of Violence".

I like this album even more now that I know it was released in 1987.  It means that the band was living the kind of metal they were playing rather than trying to capture a moment in time.  The album fits in well with some of the other, more well-known extreme metal albums from South America of the time period.  It is a shame Panic is not better-known.

Sarcófago: Rotting (1989)

Hmm, I am not really sure why I have not talked much about Sarcófago on this blog.  I have mentioned albums in passing, even had a couple of posts where I talked about their legendary debut I.N.R.I., but I have never actually reviewed one of their albums before.  This seems like an oversight.

Well, today I will be covering the 1989 EP that was at once the follow-up to I.N.R.I. and a turning point for the band.  The band is partly famous for being the group Wagner Antichrist (probably not his real name) created after leaving Sepultura.  He was Sepultura's first singer, though he never appeared on any recordings. 

This album marks a step forward musically by the band.  Where I.N.R.I. was characterized by its raw and primal aggression and fairly simple songwriting, Rotting is a push by the band to expand their musical boundaries.  It is still filthy and grimy blackened thrash metal, but there are more progressive song structures and blazing lead guitar lines with some melody and solos this time around.  Almost every song on this release is over six minutes in length progressing through a number of movements to keep things from getting stale.  None of the songs on the prior release reached that length.  The vocals have not changed, still maintaining that psychotic rasp that they had on the prior release.

Sarcófago has taken a step forward musically on this album, while retaining some of the twisted aggression that marked their debut album.  This EP is still essential to fully grasping the Brazilian extreme metal scene, but less so than the debut. 

The Mist: Phantasmagoria (1989)

Holy shit.  I passed this album over a few times recently because the cover art and the band name just did not quite grab me.  Sure, the art is good, but I have seen this same piece on some Lovecraft books I own and the Cause of Death album from Obituary.  So it just did not do much for me.  But finally, I decided to take a chance on it and I am definitely glad I did.

The Mist is a thrash metal band from Brazil that borders on the much more extreme side of things.  The band fit in well with the early works of Sepultura and Sarcófago.  The band piles on the riffs and drums and is absolutely relentless in their attack.  The riffs are not overly technical, but they hit hard and have a grimy, dirty sound to them that is rather common in the Brazilian extreme metal scene of the 1980's, and is oft-mimicked even today.  Every single song on this album should be a classic.  This is truly impressive extreme thrash metal.

The vocals call to mind early albums by Death.  The singer has the same kind of gruff, sepulchral rasp that Chuck Schuldiner used to great effect.  It is not a true death metal vocal style, but is anything but clean. 

I want to take a short time to talk about the bass.  Bass is often overlooked in metal, except for when it is truly exceptional (such as anything Steve DiGiorgio is in).  This is one of those exceptional cases.  The bass work is absolutely incredible.  It can always be heard and provides a rumbling backbone of the guitar riffs.  There are times it is doing something completely unexpected and the album is all the better for it.  The bass is truly the star of this album.

This album has a bit of a cult following to it and for damn good reason.  This is an exceptional thrash metal album from a scene that put out a number of them.  The Brazilian thrash metal scene has remained largely underground, with the exception of Sepultura, but it should be much better known.  This album fits right in with the giants of that scene.  It is a shame that The Mist did not last long.

Goatpenis: Live in Brazilian Ritual - Third Attack (2016)

Goatpenis huh? 

Yep, Goatpenis. 

Goatpenis is a Brazilian blackened death metal band whose sound fits in well with the "war metal" moniker.  It certainly helps that the band uses a LOT of militaristic imagery and lyrical content.  I have actually been attempting to track down a Goatpenis release for some time, after seeing their admittedly awesome-looking logo everywhere lately.  I figured the universe was trying to tell me something.  However, their stuff is not easy to find in my preferred format.  This was the first one I could find.

Now, this is a live album and it is my first listening experience with Goatpenis.  Live albums are not normally the best way to introduce yourself to a band.  The last one I did this with was Black Witchery, and that live album was kind of a mess, though I later discovered how great that band is.  Unfortunately, this is the only Goatpenis release that has popped up so far so I took a shot at it. 

Unfortunately, this is likely to be one of those live albums that does not do the band justice.  I'm assuming that anyway.  The biggest issue is not the songs, but the sound quality.  It is quite clear that these songs are supposed to be punishing and intense, reflecting the harsh subject matter.  But there is a complete lack of any bottom end that saps the energy that is likely there.  In addition, the vocals can hardly be heard and there is some sort of odd pitch-shifted effect to them.  That might sound okay in a studio-recorded release, but does not really work here.

It is not all bad though.  The latter quarter of the album is filled with some songs whose intensity manages to shine through anyway.  "Roman Revenge" featuring Impurath of Black Witchery on vocals is probably the best of these songs, with a terrific opening riff.  The rest of the release follows suit.

So, this is probably not the best representation of Goatpenis's sound.  I will keep my eyes open for some of the other releases in the future.

Vulcano: Bloody Vengeance (1986)

I have mentioned Vulcano on this blog many times, but this is the first time I have gotten around to reviewing an album.  Vulcano emerged from the same Brazilian scene as Sepultura and Sarcófago, but they remain even more underground and obscure than the latter band.  That is a shame because Vulcano is just as impressive as the early works of those bands.

This is Vulcano's first album and the similarities to the early works of the aforementioned bands is obvious.  This is very brutal and fast-paced thrash metal that often borders on first-wave black and early death metal.  The music is fairly simple, but what it lacks in complexity it makes up for in pure unbridled aggression and raw attitude.

This album is incredibly short, not even making it to 25 minutes and most of the songs are short and incredibly fast.  There are not really any melodic moments though and most of the songs are not terribly memorable beyond the aggressiveness.  "Holocaust" is one of the better songs with a an interesting driving riff and a bit of a breakdown toward the end.

This release is not that dissimilar to Sepultura's Morbid Visions or Sarcófago's I.N.R.I., but Vulcano's album is much more obscure than the other two.  Vulcano continued to put out records and are actually still active, but they have never attained the status of their more famous countrymen.  That's too bad really.

Reevaluating Schizophrenia by Sepultura

Yeah, I know I just did a similar post for a Sepultura album earlier this year when I covered Arise.  Well, this album has been kind of begging for a closer look for some time as well. 

As I have mentioned many times on this blog, I loved Sepultura when I was in high school.  But this album eluded me for many years and it was the last of the Max Cavalera albums that I picked up.  It was not until well into my first job after law school that I finally managed to track it down.  And by then, my obsession with Sepultura had long since passed.  So, it just did not make the impact that many of the band's early albums made.  Add to that the kind of crappy production, at least on the copy that I picked up and there were a few reasons why this one really did not make much of an impact.

Schizophrenia is a transition album of sorts.  It is Sepultura's sophomore full-length, arriving just a year after the proto-death metal stomp of Morbid Visions.  That album helped pave the way for not only death metal, but also black metal.  Two years later came Beneath the Remains, which is the band's most straightforward brutal thrash metal album.  So Schizophrenia sort of exists in a state of limbo between the two sounds.  It features the best of both sounds with the raw animal aggression of Morbid Visions and the uncompromising brutality of Beneath the Remains.

In addition, there are some terrific, classic Sepultura songs on this release.  It features pit classics like "Escape to the Void" and "R.I.P. (Rest in Pain)".  But it also contains the spellbinding instrumental "Inquisition Symphony", which remains one of the band's most ambitious songs from their early years.

This album is finally sinking in more these days.  It is a fantastic raw and brutal album and exemplifies the amazing talent that Sepultura had in the early days.  It is a shame that Sepultura spent so much time chasing trends.  A few more albums like this would have been much preferred to the nu-metal direction the band took in the mid 1990's.

Mystifier: Protogoni Mavri Magiki Dynasteia (2019)

Brazil's mighty Mystifier has been around for a LONG time.  Though they released their first demo in 1989, they have only released five full-length albums.  In fact, this is their first full-length album since 2001.  Nevertheless, they do not seem to have broken up at any point, though there has only been one long-lasting member.  Beelzeebubth has been the only consistent member, with a revolving door for the other members of the band.

Mystifier's sound is pure, unadulterated evil.  It is a very dark and ominous album that alternates between doomy atmosphere and high-octane Venom-ous riffs.  It is an incredibly dynamic album for a black/death metal release, with impressive songwriting and razor-sharp riffs, while the vocalists growl and wail over the maelstrom.  When the band is not shredding, they utilize creepy organs and chanted vocals in attempts to summon demons.  There is a lot of chemistry between the individual musicians, resulting in an incredibly tight and punishing album.

This is an incredible album that only gets better every time I hear it.  I am honestly not overly familiar with Mystifier's back catalog, but after coming out blown away by this release, I am planning to get into their previous material.  There is a reason that Mystifier is among the pantheon of essential Brazilian extreme metal bands.  Simply put, this album is incredible.  This album is a possible contender for Album of the Year. 

Reevaluating Arise by Sepultura

Longtime readers of this blog may recall that Sepultura was a hugely important band during my formative years as a metalhead.  They were truly my gateway into more extreme forms of metal, not that they were overly extreme during the time period, but Morbid Visions was my first death metal album.  Sepultura was also the first band who I truly attempted to get as much music as I could find.  I picked up singles, compilations with new songs, EPs and even bootlegs in my quest to add as much Sepultura music as I could. 

But for some reason, despite all these random pick-ups, I could not find Schizophrenia, Beneath the Remains, or Arise.  So I missed out on three of the band's best albums.  It was not until much later that I finally added those three releases.  Beneath the Remains quickly took over as my favorite Sepultura album due to the presence of "Inner Self" and the title track.  Schizophrenia never really caught on due to the terrible production.  Arise also did not truly make much impact on me.  That changed recently though.

I am not sure what happened.  One day I was listening to the album.  And I listened to it again.  And again.  And I kept listening to it over and over for several days.  Then I realized it.  Arise is the best album Sepultura ever released.  It is the perfect blend of their earlier extreme thrash and their later more groove-oriented style. 

In addition, this album features some of the greatest songs Sepultura ever recorded, and several of them were favorites of mine from long before I picked up the album.  "Dead Embryonic Cells", the title track and "Desperate Cry" are all incredible songs that are equal parts brutally intense and completely infectious.  There is truly not a weak song on the entire album.  It closes with another classic in "Infected Voice".

I do not know why it took me so long to truly appreciate this album.  I was once a huge Sepultura fan, and yet, somehow their best album eluded me for so long.  Not anymore though.  I have a new appreciation for this album. 

Evil: ...To the Fallen and Free (2013)

The other day I was discussing bands with huge discographies during a post on Drowning the Light.  Evil is another such band that has released a massive number of albums, EPs, demos and splits onto the world, though they appear to have slowed way down and have not released anything since 2017.  I have not had a lot of exposure to the band yet and am still trying to decide if I will get into them heavily or not.  Most likely, the answer to that is a very strong no, due to the ideologies of the band. 

Evil is a Brazilian black metal band.  Brazil has a very rich metal history, particularly with regard to the more extreme genres.  Of course Sepultura and Sarcófago are the first couple of bands to come to people's minds when thinking of Brazilian metal, but the country was also the home of Vulcano, Sextrash and many others.  Evil has been going since the mid 1990's, but only vocalist/bassist Warlord remains from the original lineup, and he was the guitarist until switching to bass in 2016. 

This appears to be some manner of tribute to original drummer/singer Black Goat of Darkness (probably not his real name), who died in 2008 while in prison, as well as another individual.  I will not get into any other specifics involving Black Goat of Darkness, why he was in prison, etc.  Needless to say, he is not really any sort of a decent person.  I was not aware of the circumstances of this release when I purchased it or the ideologies of the band, other wise I honestly may not have purchased this release.  Huge disclaimer here that I absolutely do not condone anything that Black Goat of Darkness was involved in, and I do not agree with the ideology of the band either. 

Now that we have that out of the way, it is time to turn attention to the music.  This is an extremely dirty and grimy sounding EP from 2013.  A couple of the songs are re-recordings of the band's demo from 1994 and the others were tracks recorded in preparation for the recording of Ashes of Old, the band's 2015 album that is the most recent full-length the band has released.  The production quality of this EP is horrendous and muddy.  It is quite difficult to hear much of what is going on musically and the mix is such that the bottom end comes out kind of fuzzy and distorted.  That is kind of a shame, because I actually like most of the true songs on here.  It is very competent black metal with some great riffs and barbaric barking vocals. 

As I said, I am not likely to purchase anything else by this band due to their particular ideology (which I was unaware of prior to buying anything by them and I will note I bought the release secondhand from an online store, not from the label or band), and I will not discuss it here.  I am a metal fan first and foremost and will not turn this blog into any sort of a political discussion about what the band believes in, nor will I even mention what they are.  Suffice to say I do not agree with it, but I do like the music and I see nothing in the music itself that conveys the message I find repugnant.  So I will continue to listen to what I have here, but I will not be diving deeper into Evil's vast discography.

Sepultura: Machine Messiah (2017)

Way back in the summer between my freshman and sophomore year in high school, I gravitated toward Brazilian metal legends Sepultura.  It was the first extreme metal band I was ever really into.  Of course this was at the time that Roots was released.  I picked it up and then quickly picked up a number of their other releases, including singles, EPs, and other oddities (including one bootleg).  Now, I recognize their earlier material as their best, but Sepultura was a very important band in my evolution as a metalhead.  Then, Max Cavalera left the band and after being very disappointed with the album Against, I stopped picking up new releases by the band.  Until just recently.

After Derrick Green took over vocal duties from the departed Max Cavalera, Sepultura cratered for a while.  Their sound went in more of a hardcore direction and the passion was simply not there.  It seems apparent now that the band was often following trends: evolving into a groove metal band when Pantera hit it big and then nu-metal when Korn was the flavor of the day.  Then when extreme metal came back into popularity, the band once again shifted in that direction.  That being said, the quality of the band's albums has been gradually improving over the last several years, to the point that I was actually impressed enough to pick this one up.

Things get off to kind of a weird start on the opening title track here.  Sepultura is not really known for their melodic sensibility, and we have a more subtle, softer sound on this track for the first few minutes.  Green eventually starts screaming, but the tone of the song remains more melodic and somber than their typical rage and anger.  It returns to that rage and anger from the second track on.  "I am the Enemy" definitely has more of a defiant punk edge to it, and the simple, groove-laden riffs certainly help.  The band still utilizes some tribal drumming ("Phantom Self"), an element that gained the band mainstream notice in the mid 1990's.  For the most part, this album is more of the same groove metal that the band has been playing for the last several years, but there is something much more savage and bestial this time around.

The album is something of a concept album, about technology taking over people's lives, and the problems that would likely arise from technology taking over.  Think Terminator.  I have not spent any time reviewing the lyrics to look at the story of the album, I just know it is there.

This is easily the best album Sepultura has released since Max left the band.  That really is not saying that much though.  It is probably better than Roots, but maybe not as good as Chaos A.D., so of course the older stuff still blows it out of the water.  Still though, it is nice to hear something decent from the band that I loved so much going into high school.

Incarceration: Sacrifice (2013)

I don't really think of death metal when I think of the name "Incarceration".  I have a fair amount of experience with incarceration, being a criminal defense attorney, and if I had to pick a style of metal that would fit best with the term, it would be thrash metal.  But we are not here to trifle over names.  Just know that Incarceration is a death metal band from Brazil that relocated to Germany.

The music here is a very impressive mix of the early Swedish death metal of Nihilist, Carnage, and Dismember with the more typical South American influences of Morbid Visions-era Sepultura and Sarcofago.  It is incredibly fast and intense with breakneck riffs, pounding drums, and hoarse, shouted vocals.  The guitars have a little bit of that buzzsaw quality that defined the early Swedish death metal scene, but the attitude and swagger definitely comes from mid-80's Brazilian metal.  The three songs presented here are take-no-prisoners barn burners.

The production is a little strange.  It has a kind of bizarre echoing quality, like it was recorded in a cave, or a jail cell.  Maybe that's where the name comes from.  It was a little distracting at first, but over time it is not as noticeable and just adds to the dark atmosphere of the EP.  The drums are a bit high in the mix and not really doing enough interesting stuff to be that noticeable.

I am definitely impressed by this band.  I will be looking forward to more material by them in the future.

Incarceration Bandcamp.

FMA Review: Nocturnal Fear/Seges Findere: Allied for the Upcoming Genocide (2013)

Originally reviewed here.

I love splits some times. What could be better than picking up an album that has new music from two different bands? Especially when the bands have wildly different backgrounds.

I will admit that Nocturnal Fear was the big draw for me here. I own several of the band's albums because I thoroughly enjoy their take on Sodom-esque Teutonic thrash metal. Nocturnal Fear do a lot of things that Sodom did, from their blazing fast riffing speed, to the throaty growls of singer Infernal Desekrator, to the fact that the band uses similar war-ravaged scenes on their album covers. Nocturnal Fear even has a similar character show up on all of their albums.

Nocturnal Fear gets four of the six tracks on this album, but their songs are typically short, fast jolts to the jugular. They come in, thrash around for a few minutes and the song is over. And they definitely make the most of their time here. Each of the songs is a perfect example of what makes Nocturnal Fear one of the most impressive thrash metal bands to come from the U.S. in years.

I was not previously familiar with Seges Findere and had to look them up. Apparently they are from Brazil and feature a very different sound, but a similar warlike theme to Nocturnal Fear. Apparently the band's name means "The Final Harvest" in Latin. So yeah, there's that.

Seges Findere's half of the split starts out with the unmistakable sound of a fighter plane flying overhead. This is fairly lo-fi, yet hateful blackened death metal. The drum sound is a little too high in the mix and tends to drown out the riffing, which is a shame because that is probably the most interesting thing here. Seges Findere is okay, but they don't really reinvent the wheel here.

I doubt it is a surprise that Nocturnal Fear wins this split.

Chaos Synopsis: The Art of Killing

It does not surprise me at all that Chaos Synopsis is Brazilian.  I did not know this fact when I started listening to the album.  I immediately thought that they sounded like a cross between Arise-era Sepultura and Krisiun.  Both Brazilian bands.  So when I looked into the band a little bit and saw that they were from Brazil, it all clicked.

The album immediately captured my attention with a very impressive opening riff.  From there, they refused to let go, building into an infectious groove quickly.  This turned out to be a surprisingly good album all the way through, with some genuinely unexpected moments just to keep the listener on his toes.  

Chaos Synopsis blends death metal and thrash metal into a caustic mix.  The drumming is done in much more of a thrash metal style.  It is oftentimes incredibly fast, with a lot of double bass and some well-done fills.  I do not usually pay a lot of attention to the drums.  They are often lost in the music and are not typically noteworthy unless they are very good or very bad.  In the case of Chaos Synopsis, they are very good.

The guitar tone is very crisp which allows the riffs to really bite.  They do throw in some tremolo riffs on occasion and some riffs with a lot of picking.  The band even delves a little into more of a brutal death metal sound, particularly on the beginning moments to "Bay Harbor Butcher".  Much of the guitar work sounds a lot like the earlier comparison that I made to early 90's Sepultura and Krisiun.  It is a highly energetic style that manages to keep the energy going throughout much of the album.

There are some surprising moments at times.  The band cuts the speed down considerably and goes into a more melodic interlude, then just as quickly reverts to the high speed riffing that makes up the bulk of the album.  Solos are generally done pretty well.  The use of the slide guitar on "B.T.K." and the title track also stands out as a unique moment.  It comes across quite well actually, giving the tracks a bit of a Southern swagger.

I was not familiar with Chaos Synopsis prior to being contacted to review the band, but I do have to say that I was surprised.  While they are not recreating the wheel here, this is some decent stuff.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 104

ARTIST:  Sepultura
ORIGIN:  Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais (Brazil)
TITLE:  Against
LABEL:  Roadrunner Records
YEAR:  1998
GENRE:  Groove Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Choke"
NOTES:  I picked this one up at the same time as the prior Testament album, so it was the night before I took the ACT.  I had not heard anything about this album prior to buying it, and if I had I probably would not have gotten it at all.  I did not even know Sepultura had a new album out until seeing this on the shelf.  This was the first album without Max Cavalera.  Derrick Green was the new vocalist and he is not significantly different than Max, but it was still a little tough to get used to him.  Musically this album is not much different than Roots.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 97

ARTIST:  Sepultura
ORIGIN:  Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais (Brazil)
TITLE:  Blood-Rooted
LABEL:  Roadrunner Records
YEAR:  1997
GENRE:  Groove Metal/Thrash Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Procreation of the Wicked"
NOTES:  This was a collection of oddities, mostly collected from early to mid 1990's and included covers, live tracks, demos, and remixes.  There is some decent stuff on here and it is nice that these harder-to-find tracks are combined into one release, rather than having to track them all down, but this is still the less-interesting part of Sepultura's history.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 89

ARTIST:  Sepultura
ORIGIN:  Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais (Brazil)
TITLE:  Third World Posse
LABEL:  Roadracer Records
YEAR:  1992
GENRE:  Thrash Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Inner Self"
NOTES:  This is a very short but brutal EP, featuring a few live songs, a cover of the Dead Kennedys "Drug Me" and the track "Dead Embryonic Cells".  It certainly is not an essential release, but I was still picking up as many Sepultura albums as I could find at this time.  Anything would do, and this one was pretty cheap.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 86

ARTIST:  Sepultura
ORIGIN:  Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais (Brazil)
TITLE:  Hatred
LABEL:  Oxygen
YEAR:  1996
GENRE:  Thrash/Groove Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Inner Self"
NOTES:  Have you figured out that I liked Sepultura in high school?  Searching for this album in Sepultura's official discography will be fruitless.  This is a bootleg.  It is the only bootleg in my collection.  Much of it is from a live concert in Holland, though there are parts from another concert and some studio tracks as well on it.  I remember finding it at the local music store which had a large amount of bootlegs on sale at one point.  I found the Sepultura album because I was basically obsessed with the band at this point.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 82

ARTIST:  Sepultura
ORIGIN:  Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais (Brazil)
TITLE:  Morbid Visions/Bestial Devastation
LABEL:  Cogumelo Records
YEAR:  1986
GENRE:  Thrash/Black/Death Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Troops of Doom"
NOTES:  I was in the middle of my massive obsession with Sepultura when I picked this one up.  Of course this one is completely different than anything I had heard from the band to this point.  I was mostly sticking to the groove metal era of the band.  So this was a major difference from what I had been used to up to that point.  It was the most raw and chaotic album I had heard.  So it took me a little while to really get into.  But once I did I was hooked.  This is still my favorite album by the band.  It also features the band's first EP.